Congenial Times
Check out Mark Wethman’s new quant blog, Congenial Times. It’s been around for only a couple of weeks but in that time he’s posted a lot of interesting data/analysis on topics ranging from international politics to human biodiversity. His most recent post is on racial differences in educational attainment in Sweden.
The most interesting article to me has been the one on Amish IQ scores. He found data which showed the Amish to have above average reasoning and quantitative analysis skills.* Data like this is essential for anyone trying to understand the Flynn Effect or between-population differences on IQ scores.
*They scored lower on language tests, but according to Jason Malloy this was solely due to the tests not being in their native Pennsylvania Dutch.
No surprise, a Swedish study ranks Nordic as the highest. Only English or Anglo researches can rank non-Anglo at higher levels than Anglo themself. The pattern consistent indicates English culture as least ethnocentric. Thus, non-biased research findings are most likely from English or WASPs.
This also explain the highest quality of research findings are often from New England region of USA besides the highest IQ and education achievement in that region.
Folk wisdom would suggest that the Amish would have a lower average IQ because of inbreeding and the possible exodus of brighter members. On the other hand, since all Amish women–regardless of intelligence–breed a lot, the less intelligent women wouldn’t have higher birth-rates than than the more intelligent women, unlike in our society.
An interesting comparison can be made with the Mennonites, who can be thought of as “Amish-lite”. They have the same German Protestant work ethic, same rural background, and same large families. They do not reject the English language or culture to the same degree as the Amish.
pvt.k12.ia.us/aboutims.htm
This link:
http://www.iamenno.
is to the Iowa Mennonite School, which is located in rural Iowa. It serves the Mennonites (and others) in the surrounding area, who are primarily small businessmen and farmers, like the Amish, who also live in the area.
As the link indicates, IMS grads rank quite high on standardized tests.
Curiously, the higher education they encourage among their youth does not foster the culture-extinguishing mass abortion rates that seem to affect other Western women.
Dallas, I think higher education is more likely to lead to birth control than abortion. Abortion is what you do when you forget to use control (or morning-after), with illegitimacy resulting when you forget to do even that. Although as Razib has pointed out before, Ivy Leaguers delay even sexual activity longer than dropouts.
Sorry for slight off-topic, but could anyone here tackle his factor analysis arguments against Jensen?
http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37081